Upon arrival at an airport, train station, or bus station, one task many passengers desire to immediately resolve is that of checking baggage. A passenger gives an attendant his baggage and the attendant attaches a baggage tag to each piece of baggage. The attendant then gives the passenger a claim check for each bag that the attendant checks. The claim check contains at least some of the same information, such as routing, tag identifier, and other relevant data, as the baggage tag. The claim check is retained by the passenger so that the passenger may use the claim check to reclaim his baggage upon arrival at his final destination.
Upon arrival at the passenger's final destination, the passenger encounters a task that sometimes becomes an ordeal, that of reclaiming his baggage. Once the passenger reaches the baggage claim terminal to retrieve his baggage, he must identify his baggage among many bags, some of which look alike. The prudent passenger looks at the baggage tag of each bag he selects and compares the baggage tag to his claim check. If the tags do not match, the passenger continues to search for his bag with the matching tag. However, if the tags match, the passenger must then find an agent who is responsible for verifying that the passenger's claim check and baggage tag match before the passenger may leave the baggage claim area with the baggage.
Oftentimes, there are too few agents staffed to handle the large influx of passengers and baggage to arrive at various times throughout the day and night. In other cases, there are no agents on duty to check bags, especially when an airplane, bus, or train arrives at late or odd hours. The problem of under-staffing or lack of staffing increases the likelihood that a passenger who is in a hurry will be unnecessarily delayed or that the wrong bag will be mistakenly chosen by a not so prudent passenger, respectively.
Therefore, there is a need for an automatic baggage claiming apparatus which operates continuously and can handle checking any number of bags.
Finally, there are, unfortunately, a few people in our society who enjoy taking advantage of the weaknesses in our processes and in turn, hurt us through thievery. When agents are not present or due to under-staffing, are bombarded by too many passengers needing bags checked, the opportunity for an individual to leave the baggage claim area with someone else's baggage increases. In the past, there has been no measure taken to prevent or curtail this problem.
Therefore, there is a need for an automatic baggage claiming apparatus which utilizes controlled locks for controlling all exits from the baggage claim area.